Antony, Ernest (1894- 1960)
B. May 1894, Yea, Vic, M. twice, D. Gunnedah 1960
Wharfie poet. Moved with family from dairy farm at Yea to Meckering, WA, where father was farmer and road builder. Left school aged thirteen, moving around Australia from Wyndham and Darwin where worked on construction of meat works and was shunter and guard on bull trains, canecutting in Queensland, to NSW and Victoria in numerous itinerant jobs. Wrote poems from his experiences of working life. 1922-1930 farm labourer, also building worker, carpenter, mule team driver, camel driver, railwayman, prospector, timber worker, canecutter, market gardener, dog trainer, cattle drover. Waterside worker at Newcastle, Port Stephens, Port Kembla, Port Melbourne, Sydney. Most famous poem, ‘The Hungry Mile’. Lived on pension in retirement in Gunnedah. Poems usually published in labour newspapers and 1965 deposited in Mitchell Library.
Maritime Worker, 14 July 1965